Description
Stoic Arts Conference: Enjoying Music Like a Stoic, Trying Your Best, and Impermanence in Art
At Tufts University's first-ever Stoic Arts conference, the organizers open the day with a simple premise: Stoicism isn't just philosophy. It's a practice, and it belongs in conversation with music, art, and community.
Melinda Latour kicks things off with a talk that connects T-Pain's mixtape *Stoic*, Pink Floyd's "Time," and Renaissance neo-Stoic songs to the emotional frameworks Zeno and Seneca were writing about two thousand years ago — with an Oxford University Press book on the horizon for 2027. Christiana Olfert uses Cicero's archer analogy and her own impermanent aquascape project to explore the difference between internal and external goals, and what "try your best" actually means when outcomes aren't yours to control. Ranjini George closes with a meditation on presence and impermanence, drawing unexpected common ground between Thich Nhat Hanh and Marcus Aurelius. Then we finish with a performance and presentation by Megan and Murray McMillan.
This conference was generously funded by the Granoff Music Fund and a Tufts Dean’s Research Fellowship.
00:00 Welcome to Stoic Arts
01:40 Meet the Organizers
03:40 Stoic Bubble Mindset
05:38 First Panel Introductions - Melinda LaTour
07:15 T-Pain and Stoic Listening
12:00 What Stoicism Really Means
15:48 Stoicism Across Music History
19:29 Ancient Stoics on Music
23:23 Stoic Mixtape and Pop Culture
25:55 Neo-Stoic Songs to Pink Floyd
36:34 Q&A on Music and Stoicism
42:06 Try Your Best Stoic Goals - Christiana Olfert
45:50 Archery Analogy for Success
50:13 Art Goals and Impermanence
56:51 Aquascaping as Stoic Practice
01:01:55 Trying Best Together
01:02:48 Inner Goals Aren’t Safe
01:04:39 Stoic Embrace Impermanence
01:05:09 Aquascaping As Practice
01:06:11 Water Metaphors Time
01:07:35 Audience Q Providence
01:10:42 Q Limits And Pushing
01:12:43 Q Learning From Past
01:16:24 Mindfulness Breathing Practice - Ranjini George
01:18:23 Dedication To Dan
01:23:15 Five Remembrances
01:24:44 Mind Training Marcus
01:28:02 Present Moment Awareness
01:29:44 Interbeing And Compassion
01:31:24 Journaling And Time
01:33:12 True Love Presence
01:35:42 Work Without Outcome
01:38:57 Impermanence Good News
01:40:55 Q Health And Control
01:44:01 Break
01:55:40 Mic Lighting Runthrough
01:59:39 Megan and Murray McMillan
02:02:13 Process Is The Work
02:05:13 Greece Oldest Song
02:07:07 Failure And Remaking
02:10:28 Finland Island Song
02:21:11 Collaboration Marmy
02:24:39 Pulsars Dark Sky
02:33:07 Shine Be Seen
02:36:05 Audience Q And A